The game of poker is well known and the rules can be found in nearly every card game rulebook. In the game of poker, cards are randomly dealt to each player. Players may have a chance to improve their hand by discarding some of their cards, and receiving replacements, as in draw poker, or more cards may be dealt than needed and the best cards retained, as in the seven-card variations of poker, or in Texas Hold'em or Omaha that also randomly deal community cards that are shared by all the players. Various rounds of betting take place after dealing and after drawing. In five-card stud poker, one card is dealt face down and the four remaining cards are dealt face up one at a time with a round of betting after each face up card is dealt. In Texas Hold'em poker two cards are randomly dealt face down to each player and then five community cards are randomly dealt face up. Betting occurs after the first two cards are dealt to each player, after the first three community cards are dealt and after each of the fourth and fifth community cards are dealt. In all variations of poker, when the betting rounds are completed, the remaining players expose their hands and the winning player collects the money bet. The combinations of cards in the exposed hands in concert with any community cards determine the outcome. Those combinations are well-known—high card, one pair, two pair, three-of-a-kind, straight, flush, full house, four-of-a-kind, and straight flush—and are described in nearly every card game rulebook.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,637 to A. Pfeiffer discloses a method of playing a card game in which the players select desired cards from a deck of playing cards, which are delivered to players unless a player requests the same card that another player has requested during the same round of play or was dealt on a previous round, in which case a null card, having no value in determining the outcome of the game, is delivered to the requesting player. Poker scoring rules are used to determine the outcome of the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,959 to A. Pfeiffer discloses a selector unit and card-storage carousel for playing a card game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,637.
Many games are now played on computing devices and the concept of playing card games over a network such as the Internet is well known. Patents have been granted to new card games that include claims that cover playing the game over the Internet. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,012 discloses a poker game where the amount of successive wagers is pre-established by the players; this game may be played on the Internet. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,720 discloses, “enhanced features” of the card game Double Hand; this game may also be played on the Internet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,777 B2 to A. Pfeiffer discloses a method of playing network-based multiplayer card selection games on computing devices that can communicate with each other on the Internet or by other means. These games follow the scoring rules of poker and can involve both actual and virtual players. On each round each player privately selects a card from a deck of playing cards. In one embodiment after each player has made his/her card selection, that player is dealt a null card that has no value if that player's selected card is the same as a card selected by another player on the same or previous round. Otherwise, that player is dealt his/her selected card. In another embodiment after each player has privately made his/her card selection, that player is dealt a null card that has no value if that player's selected card is the same as a card selected by another player on the same round or was dealt to a player on a previous round. Otherwise, that player is dealt his/her selected card.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/867,614 to A. Pfeiffer discloses a method of playing multiplayer card selection games on one or more computing devices that follow the scoring rules of poker and can involve both actual and virtual players. These games use a mixture of cards selected by players and community cards where in some rounds players privately select their cards from the same deck of playing cards and in other rounds community cards are randomly dealt from the same deck of playing cards and shared by the players.
The above-described games by the present inventor have proven to be of great entertainment and commercial value; however, it is sometimes desirable to modify games to add new strategies, add variety to the games, make the games more competitive, enable the games to be displayed on smaller devices, etc.